Last leaf - mild November and slow progress on the Kinvara Nature Park

I was up Abbey Hill on Saturday and everyone I met, scampering across the rocks like goats, had a beaming smile. It was a lovely sunny day; November has been mild, unlike the ice and snow of last year.

I am going to stay with my relations in

London

next weekend and will visit the highly rated London Wetland Centre. It is a 105-acre wildlife sanctuary in the middle of

London

with a café and adventure play area. I intend to steal their best ideas for the

Kinvara

Nature

Park

.

The only update on the project this week is that I was talking to a lady from the fisheries board who said there could be rare eels in the turlough, I have just been down to look under stones with no success! There were 13 wild duck which was a nice sight.

I have leant over Sunshine, the three-year-old pony now and he seems happy to accept my weight, his mouth is made and the next step is to ride him. I normally sit up on them in the stable first but I would appreciate any sharing of ideas from ranchers reading this as although we have ‘joined up’ a bit (see video) he is extremely active and can be very wild.

News from Austria is that the grey pony Floyd has been sold on and is going really well for his new owner show jumping.

My poor cow, 79, who got cut at the TB test in September, has never recovered. The small cut became infected and despite two strong courses of antibiotics the infection only got worse. It became an abscess on the joint at the top of her hind leg (the equivalent to our knee) I changed tactics and put her on the recommended homeopathic remedy, silica, and drained it and washed it out with salt and water and everything that was suggested from cider vinegar to tea tree to cayenne pepper.

The infection seems to have gone but she hasn’t put that foot on the ground for two months now and the whole muscle of her hind quarters has wasted away. She is eating well in the stable but doesn’t seem to be improving and this morning spent a couple of hours trying to get up. The vet says the joint has seized from a deep infection and she should go to the knackers. She is not in calf which is a good thing and I don’t want her to suffer.

Martina, my qi gong instructor is going to do bioenergy on the leg on Friday, but that is her last chance and if it works it will be a miracle. It looks like I will be making that call. She is 12 years old which is a good age for a cow but she has been such a good patient I hate to send her off to the factory.

I was at the Organic Farmers and Growers Association AGM on Sunday and apart from sharing a table with Trevor Sargent (former green party minister for food and horticulture) which was interesting, I also came up with a great idea with the elderly lady sitting next to me. To put eco-pods on our farms (these are timber egg shaped permanent tent like things) and offer people a night on an organic farm with a basket of food to cook!